Steroids talk dominates Shea Stadium, By: J. P. Pelzman

May 31, 2007

NEW YORK -- The pregame news conferences took place in each dugout, about an hour apart Wednesday.

One was in the Mets' dugout, by an admitted steroid user just returning to the major leagues. The other one occurred later, by a slugger who has never been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs, but was convicted in the court of public opinion long ago.

So who says Barry Bonds doesn't do the media any favors?

By not speaking to reporters Tuesday and waiting a day, he gave everyone a perfect opportunity to juxtapose his situation and that of Mets' reliever Guillermo Mota, who returned Wednesday after serving a 50-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball's substance-abuse policy by using steroids.

Bonds received his usual road reaction in going 1-for-3 with a walk in San Francisco's 3-0 win over the Mets on Wednesday night, greeted by thunderous boos with each plate appearance.

Mota received a mixed reaction when he relieved to start the eighth inning, although the cheers seemed to outnumber the boos slightly.

"It was about 50-50," Mota said, "I was expecting a little more [boos].

"It was like welcome back," added Mota, who didn't face Bonds.

He heard plenty of cheers after throwing two scoreless innings, allowing one harmless single and striking out two.

He admitted to being "a little bit" nervous. "I feel better now than I felt [Tuesday]. It was nice to be back."

Mota said before the game "it was really hard" to watch the Mets play for almost two months without being able to contribute, but wouldn't talk about why he had to sit out, although he did say, "I made a really bad mistake."

"I made my statement already," he said, referring to steroids. "I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about baseball."

That last sentence sounded eerily similar to what Bonds said a little later, when pressed about the fact that home run king Hank Aaron doesn't intend to watch Bonds break his all-time record, and the fact that commissioner Bud Selig hasn't decided if he will be on hand.

"Why do you guys want to keep repeating the same stories every day?" Bonds said. "Let's just talk about the team, talk about us playing baseball. Can we do that? Can we help educate kids about the sport, or is this all we're going to talk about forever?"

Bonds, who has 746 homers, nine shy of Aaron's record, has connected only once in his last 17 games. When asked about what the record would mean to him, he said, "We're not there yet. We're not even close enough to even discuss it at this moment."

About Aaron, he said, "I have never spoken personally with Hank Aaron. I've only heard from what the media has written about, so I can't really answer that question at all. I don't have a thought about it. Hank Aaron has been in the game a long time. He's well respected by all of us. We all love him and we admire him, and I'll leave it at that."

Mota was asked what he might do if he were a visiting fan, and saw himself coming in to pitch. He clapped.

Asked if he would do the same for No. 25 of the Giants, Mota quickly replied, "I'm not a fan anymore."